So, if these mind-boggling figures are amazing, you might be interested in knowing how Facebook keeps making a few billion Dollars extra every year.

Here we look at some of the ways how does Facebook make money.

How does Facebook Make Money?

Here are some known ways of how Facebook makes money. Some of them may not sound as appealing if you are a Facebook user. Yet, these are facts disclosed by Facebook CEO and Founder, Mark Zuckerberg and other reliable sources.

This feature allows you to create ads instantly and post on Facebook or its supported apps. Facebook charges a fee for some of these ads.

1. Facebook Uses Your Personal Data

Yes, it does. Facebook indeed uses your personal data to make cash. This revelation came from its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the US Senate’s Commerce and Judiciary Committees in April 2018.

Zuckerberg had to testify about what Facebook does with user data post-Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal.

In Zuckerberg’s own words, advertisers approach Facebook to target specific types of users. Facebook then targets their advertisements towards these users. The advertiser pays Facebook for this targeted advertising.

Denying that Facebook sells user data to advertisers, Zuckerberg says his company only helps their advertisements reach select, intended audiences.

How Facebook identifies these users? Of course, by keeping tabs on what you post, profiles of your Facebook friends, geographic location and lots more.

They do not have people monitoring your posts: instead, Facebook deploys robots or bots or crawlers that creep into your Facebook profile.

Once inside, they gather and store information relevant for advertisers that want to target you through Facebook.

2. Dynamic Ads/ Self-Serve Advertising

Dynamic Ads is a feature from Facebook. It allows advertisers to create content based on gender, location, likes, religious inclination, age and other specifics of your profile.

It is part of Facebook Business, where commercial users can create and post ads on your Facebook profiles. The feature is also called Self-Serve Advertising.

Exact details about how much money Facebook makes from Dynamic Ads is not known.

3. Facebook Audience Networks

This is a relatively new feature on Facebook for video developers and advertisers. It allows them to stream live videos and recordings to users like us. The type of videos is again decided by your user profile details.

Facebook Audience Networks also allows companies to monetize their videos. They can sell live videos or recordings to an audience and make money through advertisers or paid content.

Part of this revenue goes into the Facebook kitty. As Facebook Audience Networks is fast gaining ground worldwide, it is a major source of revenue for Facebook.

4. WhatsApp

Facebook bought a popular instant messaging application, WhatsApp for close to $20 billion in 2014. By April 2018, WhatsApp was earning some revenues for Facebook.

Though these revenues are yet to pick up, industry experts believe WhatsApp will become a major contributor to Facebook coffers.

WhatsApp’s main strength lies in instant messaging- a feature much sought by advertisers. It allows instant multimedia messages and the facility to send files.

Already, Singapore Airlines has tied up with Facebook and WhatsApp. Under this deal, Singapore Airlines provides real-time updates about flight arrivals, departures and other details to registered users on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

5. Instagram

It has over one billion Monthly Active Users (MAU). Instagram is fast emerging as a major source of revenue for Facebook.

With over a billion subscribers, Instagram continues to attract advertisers to post content. They pay Instagram for these advertisements, contributing to Facebook revenues.

Instagram also has other variants that are specially oriented at professionals and businesses.

6. Games on Facebook

Fond of playing games like Farmville and others on Facebook? Then you are also helping Facebook to make money. How? Most developers that wish to popularize their latest release, push the game over Facebook.

And why not? With over 2.32 billion Monthly Average Users (MAU), Facebook provides an ideal platform to test and popularize the game.

More? Facebook Messenger now offers a facility to send and receive cash instantly. This facility is currently available worldwide, except in certain countries like India where the government restricts or monitors money transfers from abroad.

8. Facebook Marketing Consultant

Facebook provides a franchise of sorts to entrepreneurs that wish to conduct courses on marketing on this largest social media platform of the world. It is open to entrepreneurs around the world.

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